Both of them have many components that evaluate the different aspects of racism and sexism. Although, these concepts are developed differently, they both definitely give the reader something to think about in terms of racism and sexism. Since Alice Walker is an African American woman herself, she must relate to the stories she writes, as most of the characters she writes about are African American as well, and are facing some kind of problem. Also in both stories, the characters have a clash between themselves and the society. In Everyday Use, all the characters, the narrator, Dee and Maggie, in some way clash with their society.
The coloured people are always viewed as folks who should endure violence and pain even at home. Toni Morrison illuminates on the sufferings of black females in a white society in The Bluest Eye. This novel “…shows racism’s damaging effects on the black community at large and on black families” (Kubitschek, 27). In The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove realizes the supremacy of white society and longs to have the features of white females. She prays God to give the bluest eye in the world.
Finding your purpose in life can be the hardest thing to do for many people. Especially when your entire family is finding the meaning of their own life and creating the world they want for themselves. In the novel, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her life as a young black girl growing up with two problems she’s facing. She is living during a time of segregation against black people, and she doesn’t know what her identity is. She finds throughout the story that she has a love for words and writing.
In conclusion, the poem "Rape" by Adrienne Rich is a riveting piece of literature that takes the reader on a journey of this unknown women 's life that leaves you full of sorrow and anger, both towards yourself and the society. When she says rape, she might not mean it as literally as one might take it in the beginning, she uses it in a more metaphorical sense than anything else. This poem brings into light issues that are still prevalent on our society, today when a woman is raped she is still asked outrageous questions, her character is still questioned, she is still blamed for wearing provocative clothes, going out late at night or drinking too much. The society might have come a long way from when Adrienne Rich wrote this poem but it still has a long way to go. It is sad to see that claims that Rich made against the patriarchy and the society as a whole almost half a decade ago are still relevant to this day and are not
This successful female author wrote a masterful poem during one of the most brutal times to be a black woman. The poem Still I Rise is a great example of how women are strong and beautiful beings who deserve the same rights as those who identify another race or gender. In a thorough critique of Maya Angelou’s powerful poem Still
Imagine a life being dominated by others and being traded around like an object. Imagine a life having a constant fear of not being able to stand up for what is right. This was the case for Celie and many other black women during the early 1900s. America, for the most part, has grown out of these social injustices, but how much does one really know what events took place in these little southern towns? Alice Walker exposes real life examples of controversial topics to teach readers about what actually occurred during these one hundred years.
Afro-American women writers present how racism permeates the innermost recesses of the mind and heart of the blacks and affects even the most intimate human relationships. While depicting the corrosive impact of racism from social as well as psychological perspectives, they highlight the human cost black people have to pay in terms of their personal relationships, particularly the one between mother and daughter. Women novelists’ treatment of motherhood brings out black mothers’ pressures and challenges for survival and also reveals their different strategies and mechanisms to deal with these challenges. Along with this, the challenges black mothers have to face in dealing with their adolescent daughters, who suffer due to racism and are heavily influenced by the dominant value system, are also underlined by these writers. They portray how a black mother teaches her daughter to negotiate the hostile, wider world, and prepares her to face the problems and challenges boldly and confidently.
Root, Identity and Community have always been the underlying theme of Toni Morrison. Through the accounts of her novels, Toni Morrison shows several ways in which slavery, which was the most oppressive period in the black history, has affected the identity of African American. In Bluest Eye, Morrison shows that a black woman who searches for her true identity feels frustrated by her blackness and yearns to be white because of the constant fear of being rejected in her surroundings. Thus Morrison tries to locate post colonial black identity in the socio-political ground where cultures are hybridized, powers are negotiated and individuals are reproduced as resistant agents. She not only writes about claiming the superiority by the white but also
It is considered her transitional work. Rich’s own real life experiences and her observations of life concerning the true situation of women in patriarchal society has found way in this volume. The pitiable condition of women in and out of the family, the exploitation of women in every field, the continuous tortures inflicted on them and the corresponding shattering of their nerves all influenced Rich so much so that she decided to write for women’s situation. Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law is her break through volume. It is here that Rich for the first time asserts herself as a feminist
In her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she uncovered the gloom, pain, loneliness and the sufferings of her life in specifically and her race in general as she belonged to African base . Her child exploitation has been well explored in this novel. Racial discrimination that she faced in USA has been particularly mentioned. Marguerite, the main character and childhood reflection of Angelou, has been called a symbolic character for every black girl growing up in America. She experienced racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas.